Windscreen Woes

[Guest]

When I needed to have a new bonded screen in a Passat that I bought as an insurance 'write-off' a few years ago, I called the local windscreen people.

Two prices quoted :- " £185 if it is on insurance."

No, I'm paying ....

" Oh, right, we'll do it for £105"

and no, it was not a VAT/cash fiddle. Just two different prices.

 

[Diver944]

Now the other side of the coin from a small trader who sometimes does insurance work:

I normally refuse them but occasionally do work for insurance companies, but when I do it is always a complete pain in the arse. They want to send an engineer out to double check my quote, then want me to fill out a report containing my quote. Then I have to contact the customer to arrange a mutually convenient time to make the repair and arrange collection of their excess. After completing the repair I submit an invoice for the balance to the insurance company. 100% of the time this will not be paid, so after a month I raise a copy and a reminder to the insurance company. Normally they will settle the bill about 6 weeks after the repair [8|]

As a consequence I alway charge insurance companies more, time is money (not 80% more like the example above but roughly 20% more to cover all my chasing around)

 

[Guest]

I had my screen replaced a few years ago with Autoglass... They came to a friends house and cut out the old one but forgot to add the trim to the screen and then proceeded to bond the screen... My m8s father asked why they were doing this and was told "The trim goes on afterwards"[] The trim wouldnt fit then because the screen was bonded too far up [:'(]. When I seen the car the trim was missing - the screen was bonded and whn I took a run in it the wind was coming in at the top of the dash. I told them I wasnt happy on the phone and they said they would sort it out ... IN BELFAST....[] So I got a leather jacket on and drove to Belfast to the main depot.... They agreed that it was bad workmanship on their part and tried to take out the screen ... They broke the screen and marked the A pillar trim on the inside. and had no spare so I had to drive home with a cracked screen 85 miles and the wind still blowing up the dash. [&:]
Autoglass then got me a new screen and "Our most experienced fitter" down to replace it. In fairness he done a good job but NEVER AGAIN[]

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: Diver944

Now the other side of the coin from a small trader who sometimes does insurance work:

I normally refuse them but occasionally do work for insurance companies, but when I do it is always a complete pain in the arse ...............

I can agree with that view Paul. I would put it a bit stronger - I think they are absolute rogues.
Quite a few years ago my TVR-Buick was badly damaged whilst sitting in a car park. A fast lady managed to lose control of a Honda Civic on a wet road. Her car crossed the pavement at speed, took out two concrete bollards and ended up shunting my parked car into a wall.
Straightforward claim ? Particularly as I was not even in the car - luckily.
It took nearly six months and a solicitor starting court action to get Guardian Royal to pay up.
In the meantime they had evetually offered a 'settlement figure' to me of exactly half of what the TVR factory had quoted for specialist repairs after they picked the car up.
What Guardian Royal did not realise is that when TVR sent the quote directly to GR, they also sent me a copy for info.

Within 24 hours of that ludicrous offer, my solicitor started court action against the driver herself and within 48 hours GR settled the claim in full.